Abstract

There is little doubt that biochemical investigation of human post mortem brain tissue has made a substantial contribution to the understanding and treatment of disease. It was as a direct result of the observation of a dopamine deficit in the corpus striatum of Parkinson’s disease patients that L-dopa was introduced and found to be so successful (Birkmayer and Hornykiewicz, 1962). More recently, substantial advances in our understanding of Huntington’s chorea and senile dementia have been gained from post mortem studies.